I have lost my rudder and adrift in the Gulf

[skylark]

Very interesting video on fear and what it can do to you.  The pintle broke, leaving the boat rudderless on a passage from Ft Myers? to Key West.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWtx7P3cPC8

What would you have done?

[rorik]

I couldn't quite hear why the rudder was broken, something about the tip, but then something else about a pin.
I'm going to work on the assumption that some portion of the rudder is missing and that one or more of the pintles/gudgeons are also gone.
Steering by balancing sails might have worked....but not easily.
If just one of the pintles are gone, make a lashing to hold it in place.
In the "terrible winds and seas" he should be shortening sail anyway, so drop the main. Remove the boom, lash what's left of the rudder (after removing the tiller) to the end of the boom, and lash the fulcrum point of the boom in between the two uprights of the stern pulpit. Steer gently.
Fifty miles under jib and makeshift rudder won't be fast or fun, but I just can't see giving up like that. Especially for 3 days.
I don't understand it.


*hope that didn't sound snarky*

[skylark]

Looking at the next video, It looks like the problem was the upper gudgeon, not the pintle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-7froypAng

I think the interesting thing about this experience is that under pressure, one can make poor decisions or at least the thought process tends to swing toward extreme reactions to the situation.

He made it to safety and repaired the problem so he successfully dealt with the danger.  But because of video, we got to see the human thought process during the ordeal. 

I think that I might have done somewhat the same as he did, including the panic attack.  I might have experimented with lashing the rudder or other flat boards as a replacement rudder.  I might have used the motor in some way.

But he made it to an anchorage, got help to repair his boat and is on his way again. 

I learned to take along some drilled angle iron to make a replacement gudgeon.

[John Bailey]

I used to practice with my Alberg 30 using only the sails to steer.  While it was not an exact science, I was able to do it.

The video didn't look like "terrible winds" or "terrible seas."  Plus, it appeared he was heading in the right direction to get help.

I understand the panic as I was recently involved in losing a rudder.  I'm glad he was able to resolve everything safely.

John

[skylark]

Another advantage of a long keel over a fin keel...

[DavidCrosby]

A friend and I decided to take a direct hop from Panama City, FL to Destin, FL. It was intended to be an evening sail arriving about midnight. We were sailing his Hunter 260 (don't shoot me).   The weather was good. The long range forecast was good. The waves were only a couple feet on our aft quarter. After the sun set, the wind and waves started to build. The waves were pushing us around a bit, so the steering got to be a work out. After awhile we started to hear a clunking noise. Obviously, not a good sign. We had not gotten around to determining the noise when all of a sudden the boat rounded up and tacked and then proceeded through a jibe. We managed to get the boat hove to and started to figure out what went wrong.  The rudder is a kick up rudder, so thankfully has lots of strings attached to it. The rudder was about five feet behind us and still attached. So I hauled it in.

The Hunter 260 has two stainless steel cheeks welded to the rudder post. These are the hinge point for the kick up blade. The cheeks were spread out into a V. Apparently, the single rudder hinge pin lost it's nut and slowly backed out of the one cheek side and then finally sheared off.

We had a rudder blade and thankfully a lot of tools on board.  We drilled a hole in the leading edge of the rudder part way down and then used the hinge hole and this new hole to tie the rudder to the rudder post. The rudder was pushed down through the V'ed cheeks and tied into place. It had a lot of slop. We had about half rudder and were able to steer with the wheel.

We continued on to our destination. Overall the fix was successful. However, every now and then a wave would hit us in the quarter and overpower the rudder causing us to spin out in a tack and jibe situation.  This became real interesting when we were trying to enter Destin's breakwater with waves surging in around us.

We learned a lot from this. One being to safety the hinge pin so that we can't lose the nut. Second, the value of carrying power tools on board. And others might say "Don't take a Hunter 260 offshore."